President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and other liberals are beating the drum to get guns out of the hands of Americans — but their words, predictably, are having the opposite effect in much of the country, including Cherokee and neighboring Cobb counties.

Team Obama has mounted a full-court press in the wake of last year’s mass shootings to make it more onerous to legally purchase firearms, and it is a barely concealed secret that if they had their way that private ownership of most guns would be banned. Never mind that most, if not all, of the headline-grabbing mass shootings through the years were perpetrated by the mentally ill. Obama, Biden, et al have said nothing of consequence about the mental-illness piece of the equation when it comes to preventing such shootings. Nothing of substance about how better to diagnose and treat the mentally ill before they snap. Nothing about how to house and treat potentially violent people rather than letting them wander the streets or be warehoused in our jails.

Those are not easy or inexpensive questions to answer, so Obama has gone the politically expedient route of trying to demagogue and demonize gun owners. And that, in turn, has law-abiding gun owners exercising their Second Amendment rights to the fullest, causing a run in gun and ammunition sales at firearms shops here and across the country. As Adventure Outdoors owner Jay Wallace of Smyrna told a reporter in Tuesday’s Marietta Daily Journal, “As soon as we put (ammunition) out, it’s gone” off the shelves.

“Our parking lot is full every single day,” he added. “People are checking to see what ammunition we receive. They’re calling on the phone, they’re emailing ‘have you received it? Have you received it?’”

Another symptom of the climate of fear created by the president is the overwhelming turnout for the Marietta Police Department’s gun-safety seminars. Typical attendance is about 125 people, but more than 700 signed up for the most recent one last week, according to Police Chief Dan Flynn.

“Several of those attendees told us they are aware that gun laws are changing rapidly, and they just want to be sure to remain in compliance with the latest set of laws,” he said.

Fear-mongering is no substitute for governing, but it’s something at which the president excels. Yet the fact remains that his proposals are missing the target almost entirely, as they are aimed at putting further restrictions on law-abiding gun owners. It should go without saying that criminals do not follow laws. They don’t follow our current gun laws and they won’t follow future gun laws, either.

But don’t expect that to prevent Obama from continuing to use law-abiding Americans as his latest whipping boys.

*We welcome your comments on the stories and issues of the day and seek to provide a forum for the community to voice opinions. All comments are subject to moderator approval before being made visible on the website but are not edited. The use of profanity, obscene and vulgar language, hate speech, and racial slurs is strictly prohibited. Advertisements, promotions, spam, and links to outside websites will also be rejected. Please read our terms of service for full guides